This Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) methodological assessment of scenarios and models of biodiversity and ecosystem services has been carried out by experts from all regions of the world, who have performed an in-depth analysis of a large body of knowledge, including about 1500 scientific publications. It has been extensively peer reviewed. Its chapters and their executive summaries were accepted, by the fourth session of the Plenary of IPBES (22-28 February 2016, Kuala Lumpur).

Decision makers in Governments, private sector and civil society want more robust information regarding plausible futures of biodiversity and ecosystem services. They want to understand how the drivers impacting biodiversity and ecosystem services might evolve in the future, and what the consequences might be for biodiversity, ecosystem services and nature’s benefits to people. They also want to understand the implications of different policy choices on biodiversity and ecosystem services, and how to achieve policy targets, e.g., the Aichi targets.

To address the concerns of decision makers the IPBES scenarios and modelling assessment considered the roles of scenarios and models within the IPBES conceptual framework, and assessed the roles of three types of scenarios within the policy cycle, i.e., (i) “exploratory scenarios”, which represent different plausible futures, often based on storylines; (ii) “target-seeking scenarios”, also known as “normative scenarios”, which represent an agreed-upon future target and scenarios that provide alternative pathways for reaching this target; and (iii) “policy-screening scenarios”, also known as “ex-ante scenarios”, which represent various policy options under consideration.

We're happy to share this compilation of news from the JRS Biodiversity Foundation and our grantees that we've posted this year.

JRS has a commitment to share what we're learning from our grantees. In that spirit, we publish the report highlighted below titled "Show me the Data." We hope that this is the first of many such publications from JRS and we welcome your comments and ideas.

JRS REPORT RELEASE

Show Me the Data!

We are pleased to announce the release of a study we commissioned on the accessibility of JRS grantee data. In 2014, JRS contracted Jante LLC to conduct an independent review of expected data products from 49 JRS-funded projects. The results suggested that biodiversity information was less discoverable and accessible than hoped. However, interviews with grantees provided the framework for a set of recommendations to projects with data-sharing goals, and formed the basis for a new JRS Data Sharing Policy. Read more here.

JRS News

JRS Seeks New Trustees for 2016

JRS invites you to suggest candidates for our international Board of Trustees for consideration to serve in 2016-2019. We seek talented leaders with a proven passion for JRS’ mission and expertise that combines at least two of: conservation, policy, organizational development or biodiversity informatics. Suggestions for candidates or inquires will be held in confidence and may be sent to nominations@jrsbiodiversity.org.

NEW GRANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Welcome to the newest JRS Grantees

JRS announced nine grant awards during the second funding cycle of 2014, totaling more than $925,000 in project support and are pleased to announce our first 2015 grant to NatureServe for policy studies in South America:

In January, JRS welcomed the newest board member, Souleymane Konaté, Professor in ecology at the University Nangui Abrogoua (Côte d'Ivoire). Read more about Dr. Konaté here.

Glass Pockets, the Foundation Center's initiative to promote transparency in philanthropy, featured a post by Don on their Transparency Talk blog. Read the post here.

MEDIA COVERAGE

Grantees in the News

Read some of the press coverage highlights of JRS Grantee activities:

Louis Liebenberg advocates for the use of citizen science technologies like CyberTracker in democratizing biodiversity data collection (JRS News Item)

Premier of "The Bat Man of Mexico" BBC documentary featuring Rodrigo Medellín covered by Tim Sohn in the New Yorker. (JRS News Item). You can also read about how Medellín's work informed a tri-national agreement to protect bats here.

Voice America features an interview with Joyce Poole from ElephantVoices. (JRS News Item)

The American Scientist blog featured a post by David C. Blackburn from the California Academy of Sciences on the need for biology education in Africa. (JRS News Item)

DATA PRODUCTS AND RELEASES

Making Biodiversity Data Available

JRS grantees have released a number of new data products this year, documenting both historic biodiversity, and ongoing global changes. Read about each of the projects below on the JRS news site:

Still upcoming is the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) conference in Nairobi, Kenya (Sep 28-Oct 1). This os the first time the meeting will be held in Africa (read here), an effort supported by JRS with the goal of increasing the African voice in discussions about using biodiversity data in conservation.